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HAVING FUN AND CATCHING
SOME FOR THE DINNER TABLE
By: Ron Wilson
June 14, 2009....
New Melones Kokanee fishing has been wide open for several weeks
now and its still going
wide open with limits being easy for anyone that has any knowledge of
these little fish.
One of the best
baits going has been small pink hoochies made by Glitter Bugs owner John
Darroch who lives in Arnold. I have seen him at
New Melones a couple times this year and he has had his limit in
an hour or less.
I like that in a lure maker, a guy who
not only makes his fishing equipment but one who also takes his product
out on the water and test it out to see if it works properly.
With predicted higher prices for gas and
diesel again this year I chose to use my limited retirement income for a
yearly pass at
lake Don Pedro this year, as it’s the closest lake to me. I've
been pounding the fish there.
Tuesday we headed up by the flume to the
mine tail dredging. I just knew that some bass would be there but all we
found were a couple small undersize smallmouth bass.
We worked our way toward the waterfall
and on the second cove we stumbled onto a gold mine, so we thought.
There were huge bass busting shad all over the cove. Harold threw a Poe
plug for no love and I threw a popper with the same results. The fish
were still crashing bait so I picked up a spinnerbait and threw it out
and after a couple cranks it was whammy and drag screaming time. After a
good tussle a fish in the 7 pound class was in the boat. I quickly fan
cast the cove with the same spinnerbait without getting another strike.
The fish had left the area immediately after I had hooked the big bass.
We were disappointed that we didn’t catch several of them but that’s why
they get big. They have learned from us that when one of there members
is hooked its time to get the heck out of there I guess, anyway they
disappeared and never came back after the shad ball while we were in the
area.
 Its
was time for a quick snapshot and a release so the big gal could go back
to the group. Look at her tail and you can see that she just got done
spawning.
We fished the waterfall and headed south
for nada. About a half mile down the bank at another old waterfall
entrance, when its raining, I finally stuck one for the dinner table a 2
pound fish that had not spawned yet. Here it is June 8th and fish still
are getting ready to spawn. Maybe the great influx of water has them
confused a little this year. I have never seen Lake Don Pedro come up so
fast so late in the year. Another 20 feet and the water will be at the
top of the Blue Oaks Launch ramp. That’s really surprising and is great
news for the fishery in
the lake as the
little fishes will have a lot of places to hide and grow up this
year and the bait fish, shad are showing up already in good numbers.
Harold and I finished the day off with a
limit of trout and kokanee. The best producing lure has been the small
Glitter Bugs pink hoochie. Remember when attaching it to a dodger the
length of the line should be about 1 and a half times the length of the
dodger. This gives it the swaying motion the fish like. You can change
the action of the lure by making it to long and I have found that the
hoochies do not work well with long leaders. You can experiment with it
yourself while on the water. I believe that you will find that the 1 ½
line length or even a tad shorter will put more fish in the boat for
you.
Thursday Harold Wiley and I went to the
lake to fish for
black bass, one of his favorite fish to eat. We started at the
rock pile in middle bay for one small keeper. Next stop was over by the
out house in middle bay where Harold picked up a nice bass in the 2
pound class. It was slow to say the least as we have been spoiled this
year with easy limits and now we are struggling just to get a couple
bass for the dinner table.
At 10 a.m. we started trolling for trout
and kokanee and I never got the second rod down before Harold was
reeling in the first kokanee. We made a slow turn through the school and
Harold had number two in the box. We were right on schedule for a quick
limit then on to more
bass fishing. Well Harold then proceeded to lose 8 fish in a row
then announced, "I am not reeling in another fish". I guess I should not
of harassed him so much about losing the fish but hey isn’t that what
fishing partners are for.
I don’t know if he knew it or not but I
was also experimenting with some new hooks that I don’t think work that
well. I put on two pink
Hoochies and reeled in my 5 fish in a hurry then informed Harold
he had 3 more to go. He soon had fish number 9 in the boat and as we
trolled through the school of kokes again he reeled in fish number 10
for our limits.
I was putting my lures, corn and stuff up
when the other rod went off and Harold shut off the motor as he fought
the little scrapper and after 7 jumps he came unhooked. Yep you guessed
it I gave him a little more ribbing. “The motor was shut off and you
still can’t get them in the boat, I said” Harold said heck we didn’t
need him anyway.
I was having a ball, one of the best
parts of fishing for me is having a fishing partner with you to enjoy
the outdoors and comrodorey with. I like my alone times in the outdoors
once in a while but having someone there who also enjoys being in the
outdoors seems to add that little something extra when you are out there
enjoying what you like to do.
Next stop was at the dam fishing for
bass, but nobody was home. We then headed into Blue Oaks Cove where I
managed to catch bass number 2 in 12 feet of water. Maybe a pattern,
well depth wise however bait wise it was Keeper 1050, 082 red flake and
salt and pepper chartreuse tail. 3 baits 3 fish.
I soon caught another fish that was
probably a keeper and Harold said its to short throw it back so I tossed
it. Harold said what did you do that for, I said well you said it was to
short. We laughed at that. A couple casts latter I nailed another fish.
I removed the fish and Harold opened the lid to the live well and I said
watch this. I tossed the fish and it went over the lid and landed at his
feet and he watched as it flopped 3 or 4 times and flopped back in the
water. I said what's the matter your feet broke? Harold said, "you said
watch so I watched him flop until he went back in the water". I was just
doing what you said. We had another laugh out of that. I said, "well I
need at least 2 bass for my dinner so we headed to the underwater island
off of Buzzard and I stuck another 13 incher for my dinner plate.
I sure am enjoying my retirement I just
hope that whomever is reading these words of wit are or will be enjoying
theirs as much as I am enjoying mine. |
